#hate crime hoax
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by Moshe Phillips
But deep in the article, in paragraph 30 (out of 41), the text suddenly took a strange turn. “Hate crimes are challenging to prove in court,” Ali wrote. What made this case “even more tricky” was that the alleged shooter, Jason Eaton, said nothing out loud before, during or after the shooting.”
Usually, you know something was a hate crime because the perpetrator yelled a racist slogan or told the police he was motivated to attack the victim because of the victim’s race or religion. Sometimes, the attacker’s social-media accounts contain racist writings.
But in this case, according to author Rozina Ali, it was the exact opposite.
With regard to the Oct. 7 pogrom perpetrated by Hamas in southern Israel that killed 1,200 men, women and children, here’s what the “anti-Palestinian” Eaton wrote on X on Nov. 16: “What if someone occupied your country? Wouldn’t you fight them?”
Although Ali quoted only one of Eaton’s posts, there was at least one more in the same vein. This is what Eaton tweeted on Oct. 17 (which was quoted by the Vermont-based news agency Seven Days on Dec. 6): “The notion that Hamas is ‘evil’ for defending their state from occupation is absurd. They are owed a state. Pay up.”
That crashing sound you hear is the shattering of the myth that the Vermont shooting was Islamophobia. No wonder the police have not charged Eaton with a hate crime: his social-media accounts clearly indicate he is a supporter, not a hater, of the Palestinian Arabs. Ali and others have reported that Eaton has a long history of personal problems. That would seem to be what was behind this crime.
But that didn’t fit the narrative that Palestinian advocates prefer. So, as long as that critical information was confined to the local Vermont press, they could keep claiming that the shooting was “anti-Palestinian hate.” Now the jig is up. It has been acknowledged by The New York Times.
This matters because the fight for public opinion regarding Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip revolves around the question of sympathy. In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 mass murders, most of the public’s sympathy was with Israel. But after months of nonstop biased media reporting, some Americans’ sympathies have shifted.
The attention being paid to rising antisemitism creates sympathy for Jews and, by extension, for Israel. Supporters of the Palestinian Arabs want to reduce that sympathy, by claiming that they, too, are the victims of bigotry.
Statistics about hate crimes show that antisemitism is on the rampage, while Islamophobia is minuscule. That reality is bad for the Palestinian cause. So, advocates seize every opportunity to claim that some incident was anti-Arab or anti-Muslim.
Last November, an Ohio man named Hesham Ayyad claimed a driver yelled “Kill all Palestinians!” and “Long live Israel!” at him and then ran him over. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and similar groups yelled “Hate crime!” But security footage showed Ayyad and his brother got into a fistfight on that street corner, which is what caused his injuries. Ayyad has been charged with lying about the incident. CAIR still won’t admit that it was a hoax.
I doubt that CAIR will acknowledge the truth about the Vermont shooting, either. Extremists are reluctant to ever admit that they were wrong about anything. But reasonable people can no longer deny the reality of Jason Eaton’s pro-Hamas posts.
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By: Michele Seminara
Published: Jan 4, 2024
My first exposure to what I now call “griftivism,” a hybrid of grifting and Critical Social Justice activism, occurred in the arts. It was 2020 when—in my role as managing editor of literary journal Verity La—I became embroiled in a social media cancellation precipitated by backlash to the publication of a story some deemed racist and sexist. The ensuing moral outrage razed our “little magazine that could” into internet infamy, where it remains strung up, replete with apologies, hanging its masthead in shame.
Verity means “truth,” and the journal’s motto was “Be Brave”—rendering its demise that little bit sorrier and sadder. The story that sank our publication depicted a disaffected Australian academic engaged in a sexual affair with a local woman while in the Philippines. The protagonist was uncomfortable with what the author described as the “patriarchal and colonial” power imbalance between his two characters, but not guilty enough to resist. He was an un-admirable and unreliable narrator, and in publishing the story, we sought to unveil an unsavory truth about how some men use women for casual sex. This truth was not well received.
What confounded me most about the backlash to the piece was not the mechanism of cancellation (if you’ve seen one online takedown, you’ve seen them all) but the beliefs and motivations of the cancellers, their supporters, and the silent mob of onlookers.
Upon examining this dynamic, I became aware of a new type of grifter who hitches their self-interest to activism and thrives in a culture hell-bent on “being kind”—or, at least, in appearing to be so. “Griftivists,” I call them.
The instigator of my cancellation was a colleague on the advisory board of our journal. Her bio on Ko-fi, an online “tip jar” to make “income directly from fans” proclaimed that she liked to “spread joy on social media, & care for others a lot.” Her Twitter feed was both a consummate work of self-curation and self-contradiction; earnest retweets from fellow social justice activists and scathing criticisms of “white people” (“Do not get me started on white men. Do not, ‘not all white’ me. I’m spicy today”) bookended daily selfies showcasing designer shoes, handbags, and dresses. Fine dining, trips to the theatre, and a steady stream of purchases sat incongruously beside tweets thanking followers for ostensibly essential UberEATS vouchers and requests to “buy her a Ko-fi” so that she could replace her cracked Miele cooktop or purchase a dehumidifier for her “damp” Sydney harbor-side apartment. Unbelievably, there was even a request for donations to enable the purchase of an alcoholic drink at the airport before boarding an international flight to go on vacation. Yet few seemed to notice the grift.
Someone that did was Sangeetha Thanapal, a Singaporean-Thamil writer and academic residing in Australia, who, in response to the plethora of praise showered on my colleague (“You are such a treasure. Such an advocate. Such a wonderful writer. We are lucky to have you in the world”), boldly tweeted, “It’s enraging to me that Singaporean Chinese people… who have access to every privilege and opportunity, can come here and play ‘person of colour.’ And y’all will fall for it cos you have zero understanding of the dynamics of race in Asia… This is why POC spaces in Australia will continue to shield privileged people like her while shutting out actually disadvantaged people like me.”
This surprised me. While I had no doubt that since moving to Australia my colleague had experienced racism, I hadn’t thought to question whether she was disingenuous to present herself as marginalized. She had, after all, grown up in a wealthy country as part of the dominant race and spoke English as her main language. Could she be appropriating disadvantage to her advantage, engaging in a kind of cultural double-dip to reap social and financial gain? For a lifelong small-l liberal, even entertaining the idea felt verboten.
* * *
Leading the charge in cancelling someone can be a profitable affair; in the cash-strapped arts, it can pay handsomely in the type of cultural capital that translates into invitations to publish work, speak at writers’ festivals, judge and win literary prizes, and secure competitive grants. In the year following the demise of my journal, my colleague succeeded in repurposing her tweets into a paid full-length article in a literary magazine, saw her Twitter followers burgeon from several hundred to nearly ten thousand, was featured in the news multiple times for her writing and social justice activism, and went on to receive two lucrative arts grants totaling seventy-five thousand dollars.
Of course, racism, disadvantage, and marginalization are real and must be challenged. Those dedicated to doing so have historically favored the left-wing of politics, a space heavily populated by my demographic: middle-class, educated white women (sometimes known as “bleeding hearts”). Having always been progressive, I was stunned by how swiftly and irrevocably I was recast during my cancellation as a “white supremacist.” A dreaded open letter signed by hundreds of my peers even demanded our funders withdraw their support for our “systemically racist” journal, despite the fact that we worked as volunteers and prioritized publishing and paying writers from marginalized demographics. Logically it made no sense; nonetheless, I was racked by guilt and shame.
However, after schooling myself in the recent trends in Western culture (a.k.a. scouring Twitter), my naiveté quickly resolved. I was both relieved and alarmed to discover that my case paled in comparison to more extreme pile-ons occurring around the world. Particularly in the arts, a space in which you might assume dissenting views could be aired and debated, there was a spate of ad hominem attacks being waged that seemed motivated by a mixture of moral certainty, self-advancement, and thinly veiled glee. As another Australian publisher confided to me when weathering their own public take-down, “One becomes a piñata.”
* * *
The moniker “Verity” in Verity La not only means “truth” but was inspired by the name of a once famous bookshop in Australia’s capital city, Canberra—which, in turn, was named after the inspirational woman who founded it. Verity Fitzhardinge brought literary culture to Canberra at a time when sheep still grazed on the paddocks of Old Parliament House and D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover was banned. From 1938-69, her bookshop was an oasis, a meeting place for thinkers, students and dissidents marooned in a cultural backwater. When Verity La was conceived in 2010, its founding editor happened to live on Verity Lane (rendered “Verity La.” on the street sign), and thus, the literary journal destined to live and die on the sword of its truth was born. Having no experience as an editor and no prescience, I enthusiastically took the helm in 2014 and would infamously go down with the ship just six years later.
After my cancellation, like the heterodox patrons gathered in Verity’s bookshop eighty years earlier, I sought comfort in knowing I was not alone. I discovered Counterweight, an organization established by author and academic Helen Pluckrose to help promote “reason and freedom by encouraging critical thinking” and support people like me who found themselves at odds with the new cultural climate. I devoured books, articles, and podcasts and realized that the verbal jabs thrown at me (“It’s not enough to be not racist, you have to be anti-racist!”) were not original but parroted from the rhetoric of far-left activism. As the 2020 global shitshow gathered steam, cultural commentators were warning that Critical Social Justice (CSJ)—a progeny of postmodernism and Critical Theory with roots in Marxism—had breached the walls of academia and was spreading its own divisive worldview.
CSJ was originally touted as a way to address “prejudice and discrimination on the grounds of characteristics like race, sex, sexuality, gender identity, disability and body size.” This certainly sounded rather positive to me. It appealed to my social conscience and to that of many others, as evidenced by the viral popularity of social media hashtags like #BlackLivesMatter and corporate advertising campaigns like Nike’s "For Once, Don’t Do It," urging Americans not to turn their backs on the issue of racism.
Yet, as I discovered, the stated goal of ending bigotry was soon subverted—hijacked, if you will—by those wishing to bend the truth to their own advantage.
Perhaps this should come as no surprise since CSJ was born of the postmodern view that knowledge is not objective, but socially constructed to maintain power. Critical theorists scrutinize structures, language, and social interactions to identify and dismantle oppressive power systems and dominant “truths.” This makes for an enlightening thought experiment, but in the wilds beyond academia, it’s easy to see how things might go awry. For if there is no objective yardstick for ranking truths, how will we know what to believe, and what values will we allow to guide us?
Enter the de-and-postcolonial theorists who argued for not only dismantling power systems such as white supremacy but inverting them. Drawing on their revolutionary vision, CSJ activists declared that those best placed to call out the oppressors’ false truths and design fairer alternatives are the ones who suffer oppression most: the marginalized. Perhaps because, in the absence of any method for judging the worth of one socially constructed thing against another, our safest bet is to run in the opposite direction of the powerful towards the powerless. But while it’s undeniably fair and wise to acknowledge, listen to, and learn from the experience of marginalized people, when groups who are viewed as oppressed are elevated to an unquestionable ethical status, problems predictably arise.
This has been evidenced in numerous social justice movements over the last decade (think #MeToo’s “Believe All Women” slogan), with activists claiming that lived experience trumps all other forms of knowledge and that the most marginalized person’s lived experience is the most valid. It follows that your right to engage in cultural and political dialogue is now dependent on your identity and positionality: the lower your position, the higher your status and the more weight your “truth” holds. Any skepticism is dismissed as racist, sexist, and so on. Even if you are a “marginalized” person whose dissenting views are inconvenient to the majority of activists within your group, you risk being diagnosed with “internalized” prejudice or dismissed as an “Uncle Tom.” Sadly, progressives have adopted this worldview with empathic gusto. I know I did. Many well-meaning people do. And so have corporations, universities, whole industries, and governments, effectively transforming the left—a formerly meager hunting ground for opportunists seeking power and reward—into a space fertile with possibilities for those on the grift.
The socially-enforced expectation that we not question the efficacy of progressive activist movements (or risk backlash and potential cancellation) has proved a godsend for the griftivist and has engendered what cultural commentators call a form of “new puritanism.” Whereas society used to judge morality according to religious and conservative values, now there is a shift to make the same judgments based on absolute acceptance of the tenets of CSJ. This has fostered a rigid leftist ideology equal to the far-right in both its pronouncements of acceptable truth and willingness to extinguish dissent. That may seem counterintuitive for a theory embedded in postmodern skepticism, but it’s perhaps not so surprising given human nature; as Lord Acton said, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” There is now power in being oppressed (or at least in appearing to be) and by establishing themselves as the marginalized or their allies and espousing the requisite leftist beliefs whilst denouncing those who fail to do so, the unscrupulous griftivist—like the Wolf dressed in Grandma’s clothing—succeeds in veiling their selfish intent under a cloak of harmlessness and virtue. And soft-hearted progressives, not hip to the ruse, are being eaten up.
* * *
A 2023 study published in the journal Current Psychology by Ann Krispenz and Alex Bertrams of the University of Bern entitled “Understanding left-wing authoritarianism: Relations to the dark personality traits, altruism, and social justice commitment” provides insight into the psyche of the griftivist. First, researchers characterized left-wing authoritarianism (LWA) as comprising three interconnected factors: anti-conventionalism, top-down censorship, and anti-hierarchical aggression. “Anti-conventionalism” is a dogmatic endorsement of radical moral values coupled with a desire to impose them on others. “Top-down censorship” is the use of authority to quash opposition and suppress “offensive and intolerant” speech. And “anti-hierarchical aggression” is the drive to overthrow and punish those with power. Together these paint a recognizable, if somewhat disturbing, portrait of left-wing CSJ activism, where the most virulent proponents possess traits mirroring those we’re accustomed to seeing on the authoritarian far-right.
To better understand left-wing authoritarianism, researchers designed two studies exploring its relationship with narcissism and psychopathy, as well as its correlation with traits they defined as prosocial, like altruism and social justice commitment. They found that left-wing activists who endorse aggressive actions to overthrow those in power are more likely to demonstrate “manipulative and exploitative behaviors… self-perceived entitlement, arrogance, reactive anger, distrust, lack of empathy, and thrill-seeking.” They also found that “neither dispositional altruism nor social justice commitment was related to left-wing anti-hierarchical aggression.” In fact, they concluded that “some political activists on the left side of the political spectrum do not actually strive for social justice and the support of underprivileged groups or persons, but rather endorse or express violence for the satisfaction of their own ego-focused needs.” Meaning that the most strident and morally outraged CSJ activists might not be driven by the desire for social justice at all. Quite the opposite.
As Krispenz and Bertrams explained to the science news website PsyPost, left-wing activism provides bad-faith players with “opportunities for positive self-presentation and displays of moral superiority to gain social status and dominate others.” Worse, those who “strive for influential positions that involve social visibility and outreach as well as access to financial and other resources” will likely misuse progressive movements for private purposes and cause “irreparable financial and reputational harm.” Indeed, it would seem a significant number of those marching under the banner of “doing good” while extolling others to “do better” and “be kind” are impelled by selfish, devious, or even harmful motives. And some are just on the grift.
So concerned were the authors that they advised minority groups should be made aware of these “narcissistic ‘enemies’ from within” who might hijack their causes and whose behavior could lead to dwindling public support.
Furthermore, they identified a phenomenon they dubbed “the dark-ego-vehicle principle” in which “individuals with dark personalities—such as high narcissistic and psychopathic traits—are attracted to certain ideologies and forms of political activism.” For example, someone might “participate in a pro-BLM protest pretending to fight against racism while actually using such protesting activities to meet their own aggressive motives and thrills” or because “this form of activism can provide them with opportunities for positive self-presentation (e.g., virtue signaling).”
The trajectory of the discredited Black Lives Matter Global Network certainly bears this out. In the wake of George Floyd’s death in 2020, corporations and individuals desperate to demonstrate their CSJ credentials poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the organization globally. Happy to profit off the empathy (or, more cynically, the virtue-signaling) of those willing to donate to BLM, one of its founders, Patrisse Cullors, controversially bought a house worth $1.4 million. Another BLM organizer, Xahra Saleem, was recently jailed for stealing donations intended for a British “anti-racist” group. And there are still several lawsuits involving alleged misuse of BLM funds by members ongoing; as UnHeard journalist Niall Gooch noted: “When a cause is hedged around with taboos... to the extent that obvious questions about governance, spending and oversight are simply not asked, that cause will attract grifters like moths to a flame.”
Of course, activism per se is not psychopathic; Krispenz and Bertrams’ study merely confirms that for a confluence of reasons, leftist CSJ movements are currently attracting dark personality types. There are still many political activists who get involved for positive reasons. That’s a relief on the one hand, but a concern on the other; it suggests that the volatile world of left-wing activism is currently a murky meeting point of malignant griftivists and socially conscious bleeding hearts being manipulated into rewarding them. It’s a worrying trend that—once recognized—you begin to see everywhere.
Take, for example, my field: writing and publishing. The dirty secret behind the submissions wall is that many editors now read bios before even considering a writer’s work, and all know that the way to secure lucrative government funding is to tick as many diversity boxes on grant applications as possible. Of course, many (perhaps even the majority) of those working in publishing are motivated by good intentions and aim to nurture and platform underrepresented writers. However, it’s not a stretch to imagine that as publishers jostle to showcase the work of the marginalized, they might attract the attention of a canny griftivist.
One who twigged to these opportunities earlier than most was Norma Bagain Toliopoulos (otherwise known as Norma Khouri), who made a literary killing in the early 2000s with her “memoir” Forbidden Love. The book hinged on the false narrative of its author growing up in Jordan before fleeing on witnessing her best friend’s “honor killing.” Norma referred to herself as a “humanitarian” and claimed she wrote the memoir to give voice to the plight of oppressed Arab women, yet was not only found to have duped her worldwide readership, but was investigated by the FBI for having swindled lovers, friends, family, and even elderly and infirm strangers out of at least one million US dollars. Her ruse was uncovered after her publisher, Random House, received a twelve-page dossier from the Jordanian Women’s Commission outlining seventy-three factual errors and discrepancies they had noticed in the book. An eighteen-month investigation revealed that, far from being a Jordanian who fled her home, Khouri was an American passport holder who had lived in Chicago from the age of three. Rana Husseini, a Jordanian writer and human-rights activist who spent years actually exposing and working to eradicate her country’s honor killings, told journalists that by profiting off false narratives about Middle-Eastern women’s deaths and appropriating the work of activists, Khouri—like the opportunistic Dark Triad individuals Krispenz and Bertrams warn of—had effectively “ruined our cause.”
A no less scandalous case is that of Egyptian-Australian activist Eman Sharobeem, who grifted on a fake narrative of being forced to marry her first cousin as a child bride before escaping to Australia. She was a finalist in the 2015 Australian of the Year Awards and founded two publicly funded not-for-profit community organizations to assist immigrant women before being found guilty of fraud in 2017 for misappropriating upwards of $800,000 in public funds for personal use. Like Khouri, Sharobeem styled herself as a women’s rights activist while stealing from the marginalized communities she claimed to support. She wasn’t investigated until a group of determined migrant women working for one of her organizations repeatedly filed complaints about her financial misappropriation and bullying of staff. Only then was it discovered the prominent activist’s entire backstory was fabricated, including her claim to have two PhDs. When asked how such fragrant lies could pass unchecked, the Immigrant Women's Health Service board chairman Audrey Lai testified, “We trusted Eman. We thought she had such a good reputation and high profile in the community, we didn't check. It's not very wise in hindsight but unfortunately we were very gullible because we believed in her.”
* * *
Establishing belief in an oppressed identity, a common enemy, or a worthy cause, is central to the griftivists’ game. And it’s disturbingly easy because few of the precariously privileged who have the power to call out their lies are prepared to risk questioning the veracity of a social justice activist’s claims; their reputations and often livelihoods depend upon asserting the emperor is indeed clothed.
Instead, the dirty business of calling out the truth is often left to the people who can afford it least but who it affects the most: people from the marginalized communities that the griftivists leech off.
Take, for example, the case of Rachel Dolezal, a white woman whose career, memoir, and Netflix documentary were based on her identification as a black American. While some white commentators were quick to reach for explanations such as mental instability and childhood trauma to explain Dolezal’s bizarre behavior, many black critics accused her of exploiting the history of black suffering in order to opt into victimhood and co-opt lucrative leadership positions in the black community. One of the most intriguing aspects of Dolezal’s case is that she continues to uphold her black identity despite admitting to being biologically Caucasian, claiming that race is just a “social construct”—another example of how the postmodern elasticization of “truth” is artfully manipulated by griftivists.
Another sphere where griftivists opting into an oppressed identity to secure advantage has succeeded is in the gender versus sex debate, with some biological men exploiting society’s support for transgender people to enter previously sex-segregated spaces, often with disastrous results. After violent criminal Stephen Wood (who adopted the name Karen White) expediently claimed to be trans while awaiting trial for multiple sexual crimes and then reoffended while housed in a women’s prison, there was outrage from both the gender critical and trans communities. Many feminists claimed such outcomes were the inevitable result of the recent legal and social sanctioning of gender self-identification and used the case to demonstrate the incompatibility of all trans women in all women’s spaces. However, trans activists, such as Steph Richards, denied that Wood was transgender at all and argued that by claiming to be so with nefarious intent, he had created a public and media backlash that harmed the trans rights movement. Indeed, in 2023, the British Ministry of Justice tightened its rules in an effort to curtail people of bad faith exploiting policies designed to keep inmates of all genders safe. As Richards pointed out, “Wood was very aware that the Prison Service procedures at that time (they have subsequently changed) meant that he could self-identify as a trans woman and easily get transferred to the female estate. This offered Wood two significant advantages... Firstly he himself would be in a safer environment... Secondly, he would be close to vulnerable cisgendered females and trans women—potentially more victims.” Yet another case where a malevolent griftivist exploited the empathy and damaged the reputation of the social justice movement that harboured him.
Griftivists and their cons come in many shapes and sizes—from hate crime hoaxes, to identity appropriation, to outrageously priced diversity dinners—but what they share is a canny eye for the opportunities created by Critical Social Justice ideology and a willingness to trade on progressive guilt in order to advance their own ends, often while destroying their competitors with allegations of bigotry. It’s beyond dispiriting.
In his essay ‘The Curse of the Man Who Could See the Little Fish at the Bottom of the Ocean,” sinologist Pierre Ryckmans pondered belief, truth and lies after the ruthlessness of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was confirmed in the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacre. For twenty years prior to the massacre, Ryckmans (who wrote for security reasons under the pen name Simon Leys) was a rare dissenting voice in the West. His warnings about the Chinese regime were drowned out by leftist media, academics, and film stars who were convinced that the Maoist Revolution was a net good. When asked how the world could have failed to recognize the reality of the CCP for so long, Ryckmans chose to ponder a much more profound question: “How and why do we usually endeavor to protect ourselves against the truth?” For, as he noted, the truth can be disturbing, inconvenient, and dangerous to acknowledge. Perhaps this explains why, in a culture captured by Critical Social Justice, we’re committed to not seeing certain obvious but unpopular “truths,” or to bending the truth so far out of shape with clever theories that it essentially becomes meaningless.
With a nuance atypical by today’s standards, Ryckmans’ article outlines the varied reasons people might choose to believe lies, even in the face of evidence to the contrary: “What people believe is essentially what they wish to believe. They cultivate illusions out of idealism—and also out of cynicism. They follow their own visions because doing so satisfies their religious cravings, and also because it is expedient. They seek beliefs that can exalt their souls, and that can fill their bellies. They believe out of generosity, and also because it serves their interests. They believe because they are stupid, and also because they are clever. Simply, they believe in order to survive. And because they need to survive, sometimes they could gladly kill whoever has the insensitivity, cruelty, and inhumanity to deny them their life-supporting lies.”
The lies peddled by CSJ activism and exploited by griftivists are not ones we are supposed to question, and yet, everyone does—in their minds, in their hearts, and in private rooms and messages, away from the censorious and punitive eyes and ears of ideologues.
We question privately because to do so publicly risks joining the ranks of the cancelled, becoming one of the shunned. Calling out griftivists can extract a heavy personal and professional price.
One of the more tragic examples in recent years is that of Canadian school principal Richard Bilkszto who took his own life after being publicly shamed for questioning Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion trainer Kike Ojo-Thompson during a Zoom presentation in which she claimed that Canada was a bastion of “white supremacy and colonialism.” The Toronto District School Board has finally announced an investigation into Bilkszto’s tragic case, but not before two years of bullying, disbelief, and social media pile-ons fatally took their toll. While his family must continue without him, Bilkszto’s peers who smeared him as racist for merely questioning Ojo-Thompson’s “truth” have prevailed.
Human rights activist Ginetta Sagan wrote that “silence in the face of injustice is complicity with the oppressor.” The questions we might ask in cases like Bilkszto’s are: where was the injustice and who was the oppressor? Or perhaps it’s time to drop the often-weaponized framework of oppressor and oppressed entirely for something that has the potential to unite us.
I imagine only a handful who took part in my cancellation did so out of self-interest or spite. Most believed the “truth” my detractors spun, and those who didn’t played along or stayed silent for fear of joining the ranks of the cancelled. Their fears were well-founded; the power of the scarlet letter is frighteningly real. To disarm the griftivists and limit the harm they cause their victims and the justice movements they claim to champion, more of us must fight for what Verity La tried to: truth and the bravery to face it. By doing so, and by speaking up, we can strip the Wolf of Grandma’s clothing and unveil bad-faith players.
#Michele Seminara#griftivism#grifting#social justice activism#critical social justice#machiavellianism#Richard Bilkszto#diversity equity and inclusion#diversity training#equity#inclusion#diversity#hate crime hoax#religion is a mental illness
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I can't think of anybody who faked a hate crime against themselves or paid someone to hate crime them. I can think of people who lied about being subjected to violent events that didn't happen but NOBODY who actually had themselves put in the hospital with broken ribs trying to get fake sympathy. Jussie Smollett would be the first person I've EVER heard of in my life who paid two big strong men to put him in the hospital so that people would feel sorry for him. That's the main reason I think he didn't do that lol. It was never a likely story and always a cruel and absurd way to respond to a victim reporting a hate crime to the police. People say "well why didn't they go to the police? Why didn't they immediately go to the hospital?" Well, guess what...even if you do that that doesn't guarantee you'll be believed and attackers saying a person deserved it or asked for it goes a LONG way when the person attacked is from a maligned minority, much less two of them.
Also...at this point I think we've seen enough black Trump supporters that we can stop the BS that what made it obvious this was fake was the Trump regalia they disguised themselves with.
This was the reaction in Nigeria, the country Smollett's attackers hail from, to Trump's election.
#jussie smollett#hate crime#cpd#police misconduct#elaborate hoax#why did y'all ever believe this nonsense?
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Osundairo brothers expose Jussie Smollett ‘attack’ in ‘Anatomy of a Hoax’
Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo claim the morning they prepared to allegedly help actor Jussie Smollett stage a racist and homophobic attack against himself in 2019, he didn’t show up on time.
“We made sure we got there at 2 a.m. sharp. We had no phones because he did not want us to bring any phones,” Abimbola alleged.
“So 2 a.m., he was nowhere to be found. He was not there, so we were like,…
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NaNoWriMo Day #2
[masterlist] [part two] [part three] [part four]
Prompt found here
=============‹«⟨·•★•·⟩»›=============
The thing about being the half-ghost protector of a small Midwestern city whose rogues gallery consists of both the inhabitants of a parallel dimension intrinsically linked to the "living" one as well as goons from the government, is that you tend to get a bit lonely. There's never any representation for him or others like him among the well known heroes of the world, he's really got no one to model how he should fight his city's crime. Sure, Superman has a lot of powers that are similar to his own, but he's a beloved alien not a hated eldritch entity. And sure, Danny loves knowing there's other sentient life out there, but when the government is one of his rogues, it's kinda hard to look up to government approved heroes.
Though Captain Marvel was pretty cool, not gonna lie.
But his point was, as far as Danny knew, he was the only eldritch being/cryptid to have taken up heroics, ever, and that… that hurts sometimes, that he was the only one out of a rather large cast of possible "other" beings in the world to decide that protecting others was worth more than his own potential safety. He was both the frontrunner and the sacrificial lamb. If he succeeded in changing the narrative, in convincing humanity that supernatural beings and entities couldn't be defined by a few really well known bad nuts, then others would publicly fly his banner, but if he didn't, if he failed, then, well, no ectoplasmic skin off their metaphorical noses, y'know? It was isolating.
Danny honestly expected the rest of his existence would be defined by that loneliness, by being the only hero to be of a supernatural flavor others were actively terrified of. Until, that is, Sam and Tucker nearly broke his bedroom door down one Sunday morning, breathless and beaming, which was so out of character for Sam that Danny was kinda expecting his ghost sense to go off signaling she was being overshadowed. But no, she wasn't. She was genuinely excited about something, enough to act like the daughter her parents wished she was, not the down-to-earth goth beauty they actually had.
"Woah, guys, what's up?" Danny asked, sitting up from his sprawled out position on his bed. Tuck shut and locked his door while Sam pulled her phone out and showed it to him. He stared at the screen in shock for a few minutes as his friends got their breathing under control. "Is… is that… is that what I think it is?"
Sam nodded, grinning like a loon. "Tuck double checked everything. There's multiple cases with enough correlation between them, buried deep enough in the web, that for it all to be one big hoax or just a huge coincidence would be functionally impossible. This is real, Danny. You're not alone anymore." On her phone was a website, which looked like a newspaper of some sort, with a headline reading, "The Cryptid Known as Batman Strikes Again! Twoface Back in Arkham!" It was posted just last week. Danny took Sam's phone and looked through the open tabs. There were articles and blog posts and Reddit pages and YouTube channels dedicated to what seemed to be a whole clan of cryptids who made Gotham City their home. All of them praised the elusive clan. Thanked them for protecting them. For saving them.
Danny started tearing up. He couldn't help it. Here was proof that what he was doing wasn't all for nothing. It was possible to be a hero loved by those he protected while being a member of the supernatural, part-time though his membership may be.
It was at that point that fourteen year old Danny "Phantom" Fenton decided the entity called "Batman" was his hero, his idol, the being he looked up to most of all. His method of fighting crime was a tad too violent for Danny, but his style was perfect. He couldn't change who or what he was, not without some serious side effects, but if "Batman" and their clan could turn the public's favor to their side despite being so obviously not human, something even literal aliens didn't attempt to do, then screw it, Danny was going to do the same thing. He would embrace his ghostliness as Phantom, instead of trying to pretend he was still human in that form. Maybe that was his problem, anyway? Could others tell he was pretending to still be human as Phantom? It didn't really matter at the moment, but it would be interesting to test that going forward…
=============‹«⟨·•★•·⟩»›=============
In the end, a year and a half is all it took for everything to completely fall apart. Danny would say he was surprised, but honestly, he'd seen this coming as far back as that incident with Pariah Dark, which ended with him ascending the ghostly throne. The way Amity Park reacted to that whole ordeal was rather telling. Although a number of the younger crowd had started shifting their views of Phantom, too many of the adults still saw him as a threat and vilified him, even after he saved all of reality.
Living in Amity Park had quickly become too dangerous for him and his team—Sam, Tucker, and Jazz—, but while Jazz was fairly easily able to get custody of Danny and get the two of them away from the boiling cauldron of tension, Sam and Tucker didn't have that option. His core protested leaving members of his fright behind in such a hazardous situation, but with no idea how things would go down where Jazz and Danny were running to, they had to leave them for the time being. If everything went to plan, then Jazz would call the rest of their fright to them.
Thankfully, with him being the ghost king now, his ghostly rogues had cut back on their attacks on his haunt during the past year, instead scheduling time with Jazz to teach him more about ghost culture, as well as other supernatural beings and their cultures. Due to these lessons, Danny, Sam, and Tucker would often debate what kind of beings Batman's clan had and how many beings the clan contained instead of finishing their homework.
Batman was obviously an entity loosely tied to shadows that had ascended to minor divinity over the past few years, while Robin had to be some sort of fey being, considering their eternally youthful appearance. This theory was backed by Robin's ability to mimic the voices of seemingly anyone. Raven, the next oldest member of Batman's clan, had to be eldritch in origin, though it was interesting that they claimed a name so closely related to death and prophecy. Danny and his friends couldn't quite agree on what kind of eldritch being Raven was, just that they were one.
Condor was an interesting being to debate, as the name also had strong ties with death, as well as rebirth. Sam thought that meant Condor was a Phoenix that wanted to stay on theme with the rest of the clan, while Tuck thought Condor was some kind of zombie. Jazz was actually the one to propose Condor may have been a lich, which honestly kind of made sense. Condor was known to have looser morals than the others in the clan, which fit with the general idea of how liches come into being, especially if those they killed came back as undead servants like some rumors claimed.
Around the same time Condor showed up, whisperings of a being named Oracle started showing up within the forums Tuck had hacked. While there was no confirmed record of appearance for her, there were multiple accounts of the other members of the bat clan sending words of thanks to her, so she might have been the actual spirit of the Oracle of Delphi, which would be so cool.
Ibis was definitely some sort of trickster spirit, possibly even a kitsune. With their tendency to dance around an opponent until victory was assured and their tenuous grasp on the humanoid form, they couldn't really be anything else. Black Bat had to be another entity loosely tied to shadows, though they seemed more eldritch than Batman was. Starling could literally only be a banshee, what with her death shrieks every time she attacked. Weirdly enough, Signal seemed to already have a supernatural theory attached to them, said theory being that they were the bat signal given sentience and humanoid form, though Danny thought they might be more of a vengeful spirit.
There were likely others, those not as well known or even ever seen. There always were. For Danny's fright, that was Ellie, who was constantly on the move, especially now that she'd mastered teleportation and portal making. While most of his former ghostly rogues knew of Ellie, the only humans that knew of her were members of his fright and Valerie.
At the time, spitballing ideas about the members of the bat clan in Gotham was just all fun and games, a way to practice the knowledge they were learning in a more practical and entertaining way than just bookwork. Now, though, Danny couldn't be more grateful they had spent so much time on those debates, countless nights they stayed up late trawling through the deep web to stay up to date on the latest on Gotham's guardian deity and his clan. Because they had such solid guesses on what beings made up the bat clan, they'd be able to appeal for sanctuary in a more appropriate manner than if they had no clue at all.
As his and Jazz's bus drew closer to Gotham on the horizon, Danny anxiously checked that the duffle with their offerings was still secured. He hoped the bats liked their gifts; they had barely any concrete info on any of the more public members, let alone the lesser known ones. He wasn't sure what they'd do if Batman refused their appeal; with the schematics to rebuild the Fenton portal within easy access of the GIW, they couldn't risk hiding out in the Infinite Realms for fear of drawing Danny's subjects into a fruitless war.
Please, he prayed to Gotham's guardian deity, please don't turn us away. You're our last hope.
=============‹«⟨·•★•·⟩»›=============
As Bruce was getting ready for patrol that night, he felt the creeping rise of anticipation. Something was going to happen tonight, something extraordinary. He just wasn't sure if it was going to be a good thing or not. Like usual.
For the past year and a half, Bruce had noticed an odd trend. Whenever something big was going to happen, something that would affect the entirety of his city, he'd feel antsy all day, right up until whatever was going to happen happened. It certainly helped cut down on the number of times they'd been caught with their metaphorical pants around their knees, but not being able to tell if the nebulous something was going to be good or not was annoying. Though, to be fair, there weren't a lot of good things that had happened since he started noticing his new sense.
"Listen up," he sighed as he stalked over to the conference table in the cave. "Something's going to happen tonight, something big. As usual, that's all the information I have, so you know the drill; if you see anything unusual, call it in." Bruce looked over his brood of children, most of them adults in their own right by now. Goodness, the years have flown by fast. "Try to stick relatively close to each other tonight, please. I want to be able to watch each other's backs in case whatever it is manages to get the drop on us."
Dick nodded with a grin. "You got it, B," he said, slinging an arm over Damian's shoulder. "C'mon, baby bird, let's run through our stretches one last time before heading out, yeah?"
"Tt, it is Todd who needs those stretches most, was he not the one to strain his knee last week?"
"You listen here, you little—"
"He's not wrong, Jay. You sure you don't want my stretch routine? It'd do you wonders, y'know."
"You mean your torture routine, Replacement? How you can get your body into some of those shapes and still call it stretching, I'll never know—"
Bruce shook his head, a small smile playing at his lips. He wasn't quite sure when that change had happened, but he'd be forever grateful it had. It pained him when his sons fought each other.
A small hand came to rest on his shoulder, drawing him out of his thoughts. He glanced down at his daughter and smiled at her look of concern. "I'm alright," he reassured her, "just thinking."
Cass looked at him thoughtfully before nodding. "It will be alright. Tonight will be good. We will stay safe. You stay safe, too?"
Bruce was nodding before she finished speaking. "Of course. We should head out, any longer and Stephanie will try banshee striking the first shady person she sees," he said, an amused glint in his eye as Steph cried out in indignation from over by the batmobile.
An hour into patrol, and Bruce's anticipation skyrocketed. Whatever was happening tonight was happening soon. "Everyone, check-in."
"Raven here, checking in, all clear here." Dick.
"This is Condor, everything's normal on my end." Jason.
"Robin, checking in, nothing is out of place." Damian.
"Starling here! Just some run-of-the-mill muggers, currently crying for daddy!" Steph.
"Black Bat. Clear." Cass.
Where's—? "Ibis here. B, I think I found the source of your feeling. Sending Oracle my coordinates now." Tim.
"Understood. En route now. Do not engage without backup, understood?" Bruce demanded, taking off toward the beacon indicating Tim's location.
"I'll try, B, but I get the impression they know I'm here."
The anticipation rose again. Whoever Tim was watching definitely knew he was there. "We'll hurry."
=============‹«⟨·•★•·⟩»›=============
Tim clung to the gargoyle overlooking one of the many rooftop shrines to the Bats and the Birds. There, sitting cross-legged about a foot in the air next to the shrine, was a glowing teenaged boy with snow bright hair and Lazarus Pit green eyes. He was wearing a black and silver armored suit, similar to the suits he and his siblings wore, with a flowing cape that blended into the night hung from his shoulders and a greenish black crown floating just above his head. In his lap was a black, gray, and green duffle bag that looked to be rather full, and in his hand was a beat up looking photograph. He couldn't make out what it was a photo of from this angle, but he'd recognize a well-loved photograph anywhere.
"In position, IIbis, you may initiate contact." Bruce said over comms. Tim didn't bother acknowledging he heard and instead carefully unwound himself from his hiding place in the shadows. Carefully, he danced down the side of the building he was on, contorting himself into inhuman looking positions as he went, until he could silently drop onto the roof with the shrine. He slowly slunk forward, keeping low and accentuating his curiosity. That was the key, here, he really was curious about this kid. That was what sold IIbis as something other, something not human.
Tim was about five feet from the shrine when wide, glowing green eyes suddenly found his own, covered though they might be. Tim froze, holding the slightly exaggerated pose he'd found himself in, crouched and arched in a way that screamed wary curiosity. Cautiously, he rolled his head to the side and chirped slightly.
"You really do exist," the kid breathed in awe before he shook himself and straightened, grabbing the duffle from his lap before letting his feet meet the rooftop. "Hi, um, I was wondering if I could possibly meet with your clan leader, Batman?"
Tim stared at the kid for a long moment as Bruce silently made his way to the shadows of the shrine. At Bruce's signal, a soft tap on the comm, Tim shifted and rolled and contorted until he was standing in a much more human-like fashion, then purposefully turned only his head to look directly where Bruce's beacon said he was. The kid whipped his head around right as Bruce seemingly melted out of the shadows, his size and sheer presence seemingly dwarfing the kid, who sucked in a surprised breath but barely moved an inch. Impressive.
"Yes?" Bruce growled softly, not the unpleasant, gravelly growl reserved for criminals, but the warm, gentle rumble reserved for kids and victims.
The kid's awe only grew more pronounced, but somehow he still managed to pull himself together enough to speak. "H-hi, my name's Phantom, I'm not sure if you've heard of me or not. I'd like to ask for sanctuary for myself and my fright-mates. Our previous haunt has become rather hostile towards us, and I'm not strong enough to keep them safe. Um, I've got some gifts for you and your clan, I wasn't sure how large your clan was, so I'm sorry if I offend you or anything with the lack of gifts for everyone. M-may I pull them out?" He asked, lifting the duffle slightly to indicate what he meant.
Bruce was silent as he waited for the rest of the bats and birds to form a loose circle around Phantom, stances mostly non-threatening, and stepped forward into the glow coming from the kid. At this point, the kid's awe was nearly palpable, glancing at as many of them as he could but always facing Bruce and not moving more than his eyes.
After a further moment, Bruce tilted his head slightly and nodded, causing the kid to outright beam.
"Right! Well, first, for yourself, I have a set of ghost steel batarangs, enchanted to return to their case once they leave a hundred yard radius. They're tied specifically to the case, so you can lend them to someone else, but it's recommended you be the only one to use them for the first ten uses in live combat. Next, for Black Bat, a cloak made by the best undead tailors this side of eternity. Made from the shadows themselves, whoever wears it becomes functionally invisible in low light conditions and beyond. I was also told it grants slight shadow manipulation, as well. For Robin, a shape shifting sword from the fey realms themselves, fitting for a changeling child. All curses and tricks were totally removed, as we weren't certain you wouldn't share it with some of your clan mates, and we didn't want to accidently cause any problems that could have been averted—" Phantom kept going, pulling something from the bag, naming who it was for, and explaining a little about it, before putting it back in the bag and moving on. But what drew Tim's attention, time and time again, was the fact that Phantom seemed to be under the impression they were actually members of the supernatural—he all but called Tim a kitsune, and definitely implied Damian was a changeling! It was both amusing the kid honestly thought they were members of the supernatural, and rather concerning at the same time. They were all human, weren't they? They were method acting every time they suited up, heck, Tim was nothing more than a self trained contortionist that could mimic a few bird calls and knew a bit of self defense. Why did this kid, who was possibly an actual ghost, think they were supernaturally inclined? Were they really that good at method acting? Or was there something more to it than that?
=============‹«⟨·•★•·⟩»›=============
Hey, guys! I literally stayed up working on this until midnight, so already in pushing my self proclaimed boundaries (；^ω^）I had so much help from my friends on the @batpham-discord-highlights discord server, I'll look into tagging everyone that helped in the morning when I'm not struggling to stay awake (´-﹏-`；) I hope you enjoyed this long fic, guys, cuz I was NOT expecting to write 3,266 words today! Good night, good morning, good day!
#danny phantom#batman#dc x dp#dp x dc#dp au#dp crossover#fanfiction#danny fenton#crossover#fanfic#cryptid batfamily#they're method acting. but it's working#a little too much#Danny is ghost king#it doesn't really come into play much#but he is#Batman didn't help found the justice league#Batfam sticks to Gotham#Dick Grayson is called Raven#Jason Todd is called Condor#Tim Drake is called IIbis#Damian Wayne is Robin#Stephanie Brown is called Starling#Cassandra Cain is Black Bat#Duke Thomas is Signal#of course Bruce Wayne is Batman#nanowrimo 2022#NaNoWriMo Day 2
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God I hate this Freak (Newest Hatchetfield OC)
He works as a Forensic Scientist for the Hatchetfield PD, closely working with a Certain Conrad (Linked under the Cut ;) ) and loves his job a little TOO much.
Maybe keep an eye out for a Blog for him sometime?
Vauge Backstory and Tidbits under the cut!
Mick didn't drift into town so much as he sprouted up in it, like a weed, spreading his roots across the town far before he peeked his head above the surface. He lives in an Apartment in the Downtown area of Hatchetfield, and for a while, his apartment was Rumored to be vacant. Nobody went in, and nobody went out. Still, the apartment seemed in perfect condition, and sometimes people swore they saw lights behind the sectioned blinds.
It became a sort of Haunted floor, a Haunted Apartment, where The Hermit lived. Though, that's only what was seen from the inside.
Michael Vescor was born a regular baby, he had a regular childhood, apart from being Transgender, something which caused him to have an innate fascination with flesh, which led to a fascination with Crime and Murders. He'd spend months researching, gathering information, creating threads from hoaxes, theories out of thin air. He breezed through his academics, his sharp mind and observant nature lending well to landing him a degree in Criminology and Forensics, and an eduaction as a Forensic Science. Of course, the next step was to, albeit slightly against his will, join the Force.
Mick has no respect for Rules, or proper order of things, unless he orders them that way, he is selfish in his worldview, and posessive of everything he sees. He is a man that has trouble seeing others as equals, or even as human, especially if they're dead. He has a tendency to speak ill of the dead, or make remarks in the middle of a Crime Scene. Mick also has a tendency to put down the people he works with, criticizing them for every little thing they do, mocking them for their lack of observational skills. Generally, not a pleasant guy.
Wonder how he keeps his job...
.
.
CONRAD (Give Ghost a follow NOW!!!):
#;moth ocs#my darling little freak#oh Mick my Beloathed#no seriously he is a little FREAK I don't think I can underline this enough#I wasn't kidding when I said he'd taste the blood samples#hatchetfield#hatchetverse#starkid#hatchetverse oc#hatchetfield oc#hatchetfield rp#hatchetfield universe#hatchetfield roleplay
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Scooby Doo x Goosebumps
This better be some universal foreshadowing that we're getting a Scooby and Goosebumps crossover or I'll be so mad!
This week while I was in Barnes & Nobles I came across this and almost cried from joy. I'm a huge fan of Scooby- Doo and Goosebumps so this was just perfection. I know this was most likely a setup from leftover Halloween stuff, but I love it (also give the person a raise for the idea)!
Headcanon Time/ Scooby Doo x Goosebumps AU:
The Mystery INC is called by an anonymous benefactor to help find some missing people (mainly children) in a small town.
The gang jump to it since they love mysterious, but they love helping people more.
Once they arrive in the small town they begin investigating and hear strange stories around town for example: an evil dummy coming to life, a witch who grants terrible wishes, haunted mask that attach to people and turn them evil, cameras that predict omens, and so on.
At first the gang thinks it's another hoax and real estate plot, but the stories sound eerily familiar like something out of a 1980's -90's children horror book series.
The townsfolk don't trust Scooby - Doo due to his abilities to do things a normal dog can't possible do: speak human language, cook, dance, the works. This hurts Scooby and makes him start doubting himself (how dare you townspeople!).
The gang then investigate a writer who half the town think is responsible due to the kidnappings are similar to the horror novels he writes. When they meet the writer it's none other than *drumroll* R.L. Stine (who plays himself in the movie fanfic).
Mystery Inc: It's famous children's horror writer, R.L. Stine!
At first Velma is excited to meet the famous R.L.Stine, but after her encounter with Ben Ravencroft, she fears he'll be the same as Ben. Until -
R.L. Stine: So, you've met Mr. Ravencroft. How was he?
Velma: (Gloomy) I was excited to finally meet one of my favorite writers. Only to be disappointed when he turned out to be evil.
R.L. Stine: Yep! I met him before, he's a huge jerk! You should've met Stephen King aka the 'Adult horror writer of Goosebumps'.
Velma: *Perks up*
R.L. Stine reveals that he called them, and he is the cause of what is going on due to bunch of works he never finished/ can't find the ending for a current story from his old typewriter he had since he was nine, and if he can't come up with an ending soon things will get worse. The gang don't believe him and think all the rumors around town about him being the kidnapper are getting to him. The gang stays with R.L. Stine's place during the investigation and Scooby and Shaggy come across certain items from the Goosebumps, Fear Street, The Nightmare Room, and The Haunting Hour franchise. Scooby and Shaggy come across Slappy in his inactive state and unknowingly read his spell.
The next day Stine's home is trashed with a message in blood (or ketchup) reading: SLAPPY'S BACK!
Slappy (played by Jack Black or Cal Dodd) plans to possess Stein to bring a new era of horror to the world. He's been bringing all the monster/villains to life and the real world and framing Stine for the crimes.
Slappy: Hello papa, I'm back!
R.L. Stine: Slappy!
Slappy: That's right. Ooh! I see you got some friends and their dog.
Scooby: Rog rhere?
Shaggy: Check it out Scoob, the puppet really is haunted.
Daphne: Yeah, I guess we were due an evil dummy sooner or later.
Slappy: (Flabbergasted) W-what? You're not scared of me?
Fred: No offense Mr. Slappy, but we've dealt with real monsters before.
Velma: Zombies, cat-people cultist, witch's ghost, aliens, virus monsters, the list goes on and on.
Shaggy: Me and Scooby here even taught at a monster school once.
Scooby: Reah!
Slappy: Wow! I just met you people and I hate you already.
The gang and Stine recruit now adults Carly Beth, Danny Anderson, Hannah Fairchild (ghost child), and a few others to help end Slappy's reign.
There's an epic battle and the find a way to defeat Slappy and return everything to normal. R.L. Stein and the gang are cleared of all charges and are now heroes to the town!
It wouldn't be Goosebumps without a twist - Slappy survives and with his own typewriter he begins writing his own series. His first book is of the original Goosebumps series with an image of Mystery Inc. and R.L. Stine in the Mystery Machine with looks of terror on their faces.
#my art#art#scooby doo#scooby gang#rl stine#goosebumps#goosebumps series#mystery incorporated#mystery machine#barnes and noble#mystery gang#shaggy rogers#fred jones#velma dinkley#daphne blake#slappy the dummy#mystery inc#jack black#cal dodd#scooby doo au#goosebumps au#scooby doo x goosebumps
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The chief of the London Police Services (LPS) says an internal review has determined that officers acted appropriately in the case of the controversial arrest of a transgender activist following a swatting hoax.
In August, internet broadcaster Clara Sorrenti was arrested at gunpoint after the LPS received reports via phone and email saying she was threatening to shoot people at city hall. The 28-year-old was detained for 11 hours. Police later told Sorrenti that someone had used her name and address to send the threats and confess to a murder, which led to the raid.
What an evil fucked up transphobic institution with zero interest in recognizing and actively avoiding contributing to hate crimes. FTP
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Chemtrail - Day 28
Race: Fiend
Alignment: Neutral
April 29th, 2024
Most demons throughout the SMT series are mythological beings, cryptids, historical figures, or just plain demons, but sometimes, they like to experiment. Sometimes, they make demons like the subject of today's Demon Spotlight, Chemtrail- a demon not based upon a historical account nor a religious belief, but rather, based on a conspiracy theory.
The idea of chemtrails originates in 1996, particularly from a report published by the US army regarding the idea of weather modification being used in warfare- as the conspiracy goes, the trails of condensation left behind by jets, known as contrails, are actually lines of chemical agents sprayed all over the public for nefarious purposes by the world elites. Many of these conspiracies blame these so-called chemtrails for things like diseases, mental illnesses, or many deaths around the globe, or even mind control by the elites to keep a populace subservient to their overlords.
Later in the 2000’s, the report was revealed to be a hoax, though many were left unconvinced by that turn, and chemtrails are still a widely held belief in conspiracy-laden circles of the United States. Many debunks have come out to explain what the trails in the sky truly are, that being trails of condensation left behind as water vapor in the jet's engine combines with the dry ambient temperature of the sky, though many remain unconvinced. The belief in chemtrails is surprisingly common, even to this day, though I suppose that is to be expected. You give someone in the bible belt a reason to hate the way the world is without blaming capitalism, and they'll snatch it up like a fish does bait.
Commentary aside, the conspiracy of chemtrails still retains relevance in pop culture, commonly cited as a ridiculous example of the conspiratorial beliefs of many people. However, while I personally doubt the existence of chemtrails, as do many others, the idea does have some credence to it- crimes like Agent Orange have given real weight and truth to the idea of world governments spraying chemicals down onto countries. However, given that this is a literal war crime, I'd hope that the US doesn't do that to their own citizens? But I wouldn't put it above them. Sorry to get a bit political, but it's somewhat unavoidable with this topic.
Segwaying back to SMT, though, I'm more surprised by the fact of the matter that this demon exists. It really just goes to show that, throughout the series, anything can be a demon- whether it be folklore, history, mythology, or anything in between, Chemtrail really feels like an example of both the experimentation that took place during IV, as well as being a testament to how widespread the moniker of demon truly is throughout the series. Anything can be a demon, as long as people believe in it, and that's oddly touching.
I don't know why it's a fiend, though. The idea of chemtrails being a skeleton brings up more questions than answers.
#shin megami tensei#smt#megaten#persona#daily#chemtrails#again#sorry to get political!#it's just.#very hard to avoid with this topic lmao#i tried to be as neutral as possible but i'm a lefty at heart so my bias probably shone through#tho given that this is tumblr#i doubt that'll bother much of anyone lmao
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by Moshe Phillips
Usually, you know something was a hate crime because the perpetrator yelled a racist slogan or told the police he was motivated to attack the victim because of the victim’s race or religion. Sometimes, the attacker’s social-media accounts contain racist writings.
But in this case, according to author Rozina Ali, it was the exact opposite.
With regard to the Oct. 7 pogrom perpetrated by Hamas in southern Israel that killed 1,200 men, women and children, here’s what the “anti-Palestinian” Eaton wrote on X on Nov. 16: “What if someone occupied your country? Wouldn’t you fight them?”
Although Ali quoted only one of Eaton’s posts, there was at least one more in the same vein. This is what Eaton tweeted on Oct. 17 (which was quoted by the Vermont-based news agency Seven Days on Dec. 6): “The notion that Hamas is ‘evil’ for defending their state from occupation is absurd. They are owed a state. Pay up.”
That crashing sound you hear is the shattering of the myth that the Vermont shooting was Islamophobia. No wonder the police have not charged Eaton with a hate crime: his social-media accounts clearly indicate he is a supporter, not a hater, of the Palestinian Arabs. Ali and others have reported that Eaton has a long history of personal problems. That would seem to be what was behind this crime.
But that didn’t fit the narrative that Palestinian advocates prefer. So, as long as that critical information was confined to the local Vermont press, they could keep claiming that the shooting was “anti-Palestinian hate.” Now the jig is up. It has been acknowledged by The New York Times.
This matters because the fight for public opinion regarding Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip revolves around the question of sympathy. In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 mass murders, most of the public’s sympathy was with Israel. But after months of nonstop biased media reporting, some Americans’ sympathies have shifted.
The attention being paid to rising antisemitism creates sympathy for Jews and, by extension, for Israel. Supporters of the Palestinian Arabs want to reduce that sympathy, by claiming that they, too, are the victims of bigotry.
Statistics about hate crimes show that antisemitism is on the rampage, while Islamophobia is minuscule. That reality is bad for the Palestinian cause. So, advocates seize every opportunity to claim that some incident was anti-Arab or anti-Muslim.
Last November, an Ohio man named Hesham Ayyad claimed a driver yelled “Kill all Palestinians!” and “Long live Israel!” at him and then ran him over. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and similar groups yelled “Hate crime!” But security footage showed Ayyad and his brother got into a fistfight on that street corner, which is what caused his injuries. Ayyad has been charged with lying about the incident. CAIR still won’t admit that it was a hoax.
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"I want to make sure your audience understands the depravity of what happened yesterday.
So, after committing the worst atrocities against Jews since the Holocaust, the organization that was involved in dismembering children alive in front of their parents sent out a memo to the American press corps, 10 days later, in which they said Israel had killed 500 Palestinians by bombing a hospital.
None of that turned out to be true. Israel did not bomb the hospital, the hospital's still standing, and we don't know how many people were killed, but it certainly wasn't 500.
But our press corps, like the stenographers of terrorists that they are, simply repeated this lie. The New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, The Washington Post, the BBC, the AP repeated Hamas' lie word for word.
Why did they do this? Because they are educated at elite institutions where they get woke mind-virused, they cannot tell right from wrong, they cannot tell truth from falsehood, and they simply lie and lie.
Because to them, Israel is the 'oppressor,' and they spent 10 days having to describe atrocities against Jews and they were just desperate to get Israel back into the 'oppressor' position of the bad guy."
--
"Another aspect of the construction of whiteness is the way certain groups have moved into or out of that race. For example, early in our history Irish, Jews, and Italians were considered nonwhite-that is, on a par with African Americans. Over time, they earned the prerogatives and social standing of whites by a process that included joining labor unions, swearing fealty to the Democratic Party, and acquiring wealth, sometimes by illegal or underground means. Whiteness, it turns out, is not only valuable; it is shifting and malleable."
-- "Critical Race Theory, An Introduction," Delgado/Stefancic
This is religion dovetailing with Critical Race Theory in real time.
Omar and Tlaib's excuse is obvious. They're raging antisemites, and Islam wants nothing more than to murder every last Jew.
But what's The New York Time's excuse?
Or the BBC?
Or Reuters, or Associated Press,
or CNN, or The Washington Post?
You know, for being the PR agents for a literal terrorist organization.
The New York Times was so giddy, they published a file photo from a site 25km away to go with the headline.
#Batya Ungar Sargon#israel#palestine#hamas#islam#islamic terrorism#disinformation#hate crime hoax#stenographers of terrorists#critical race theory#wokeness#woke#cult of woke#wokeness as religion#religion#wokeism#religion is a mental illness
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para about my thoughts regarding the nim situation under the cut, bare with me.
once again, another well known bada writer deactivates after getting exposed for being a minor. thank you Eli, (@badasgirlfriend), for bringing this to light.
"coming onto tumblr as a minor is not a crime. it starts to become an issue when you flirt with adults who are multiple years older than you and are under the impression that you are also an adult. not only are you lying to their face, but you are violating their trust, and ultimately leaving them with a feeling of guilt, disgust, and self-hatred. what you do is harmful, end of discussion." — from melody, @allur1ngs.
adding on to melody's paragraph, i feel so so sick and disgusted from what has happened, this is definitely not okay and i do not condone it. what nim did was unacceptable. ignoring her smut writings and requests left and right, she was also publicly as well as privately flirting with people over 18, legal adults. i myself have been interacting with her for a bit, hence why I'm writing this at the moment.
though it's been a few hours since this whole thing unfolded, i still find myself in disbelief.
Nim, i don't even care if you're seeing this. but how could you do this to us? especially with your hate blog. we were all defending you and trying to protect you, only for it to turn out to be nothing more than a hoax? do you know how many people's trusts have been broken? we were all worried for you, only for you to be nothing more than a liar. i was thought that the blog sending my mutuals and I hate might be the same as yours. but now i know, whoever that hated on us was different. they were actual haters. yours was just a spare blog and an idea in your head that you thought would be funny. i hope you know the extent of what you've done, not to mention the smut reading and writing, the mountain of lies you said to cover one after another, being over 18 here while being an 08 there, how do you juggle with all your lies, I'm curious. intrigued, even.
"it was nice while it lasted"
i hope you had fun then.
on my own note, i am currently on a posting hiatus still as i am currently overseas, and i might extend my hiatus because this whole 'saga' has really brought me down way more than i thought it would. my writings will still come by, but on a later date. thank you for the sweet asks as well as care and concern for me, i appreciate it a lot. i also got quite a bit of asks regarding nim, and the best I'll do, no promises, is to answer a few asks that are genuine questions, but other than that, please do not send me or anyone else really asks about nim anymore.
also, learn your lesson nim.
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What annoys me about the whole terf position is that cis men do not need to "dress up" as women in order to rape us and the whole hate filled bigoted position that trans women need to be "gatekept" from women's only spaces is that it necessarily assumes cis men are not already raping us dressed as well... CIS MEN.
Like a man has never put on a dress in order to rape a woman, it doesn't happen. Every terf "trans predator" can be disproven by realizing half of them are gnc cis women or their transness has nothing to do with the crime they committed and they were trans loooong before they ever committed a crime. That's like holding up a black criminal and saying "see this proves ALLLLLLLLLLLLL black people are criminals" its fucking bigotry, point blank period but their examples are hoaxes that are disproven by a quick Google search into their examples and it's very easy to recognize propaganda if you start assuming that every "infograph" of "dangerous" groups of minority predators is white supremacist behavior, point blank period.
And even if you grant this INSANE ILLOGICAL AND SCIENTIFICALLY WRONG STATEMENT that ALLLLLLLLLLLLL (100%) trans people, both men and women, are sex predators you are still left with 99% of rapists at large.
If you exclude trans men and focus on ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL trans women, you still are left with 99.6% of all rapists at large.
Like, the position does not in fact keep women safe at all and to pretend like it does is ridiculous.
If men could wear a dress and get away with raping a woman, they would be doing it in DROVES mother fucker.
Stop pretending like your TRANSPHOBIA is based in "science" or is "logical" because it is FACTUALLY AND SCIENTIFICALLY WRONG AND INACCURATE.
If you want to be a fucking bitch, say it with your whole chest. Don't hide behind your vagina or uphold rape culture in order to fear monger and oppress 0.5% of the population, 1% if you're a terf who focuses equally on all trans people, because of some DELUSIONAL notion you have that trans people have "all the power and privilege" in this society and they're "evil rapists" who are coming to get you.
Just fucking say you're ignorant and value your emotions over the facts in order to act like your assumed superiority grants you the right to OPPRESS A FUCKING MINORITY.
You're disgusting trash, but I'd respect you more if you spoke the truth behind your illogical fear of trans women/people instead of pretending like statistics or the fucking facts agree with you they dont.
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Oh boy, GenV about to have a PR problem. One of their leads, Chance Perdomo, has been exposed as a right wing misogynist:
https://twitter.com/nobodysbxsiness/status/1707966308728320054
https://twitter.com/ungodIywests/status/1707910521901510960
https://twitter.com/ungodIywests/status/1707793569942065597
https://twitter.com/dayzedaisy/status/1708178846384820300
Liking Andrew Tate tweets, liking a lot of extremely misogynistic posts, etc. I'm sure there's more but I literally just stumbled on all that.
Watch, they'll just scrub his sm and never address it again. I guess he's lucky he can't do promo right now.
One of the funniest unintended consequences of The Boys is it attracts right-wing fans, the very people that Kripke is insulting. But because The Boys is a satire, it can easily be interpreted as making fun of the people who hate right-wingers by presenting what lefties think right-wingers look like and act.
It's like when Jussie Smollett staged a hate-crime hoax based on what he thinks a hate-crime looks like, which is why every idiot in Hollywood and Congress fell for Jussie’s hoax because they badly wanted it to be true: white MAGA bro dudes recognizing a 3rd tier actor from Empire and going “Hey, aren’t you that incredibly handsome actor from Empire who has been tragically overlooked and should have won several Emmys by now? This is MAGA country! But, also, you’re really great on Empire and anyone who writes you off the show is a big dummy. TRUMP2024!"
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Edmonton police have charged the editor of a left-wing Alberta news outlet with mischief after a controversial [sic] statue of a Ukrainian military commander was defaced last year.
Duncan Kinney, 39, was charged with mischief under $5,000 "in relation to an August 2021 incident that occurred at a Ukrainian complex in the area of 96th Street and 153rd Avenue," Edmonton Police Service spokesperson Carolin Maran told CBC News Tuesday night.
Kinney is expected to appear in court on Nov. 10.
Last August, the words "Actual Nazi" were written in red paint on the statue of Roman Shukhevych at the Ukrainian Youth Unity Complex.
During the same week, a memorial in St Michael's Cemetery near 138th Avenue and 82nd Street was also defaced, with the words "Nazi Monument 14th Waffen SS".
Shukhevych's role in the military has fallen under increased scrutiny [sic] over his actions in leading the Ukrainian Insurgent Army during the Second World War and the deaths of tens of thousands of Belarusians, Jews, Poles and Ukrainians.
The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies has called for the removal of the memorials, stating that they honour "Nazi collaborators and war criminals."[...]
In a public statement, four Ukrainian organizations said they were thankful for the police's work "investigating and making an arrest for the trespassing and defacing of our monument of Ukrainian military commander Roman Shukhevych."
In a statement Tuesday, the Edmonton branch of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress said it was pleased that an arrest was made.
"We thank the Edmonton Police Service for their thorough investigation of this matter and call on all law enforcement agencies to redouble their efforts to investigate and prosecute the spate of harassment and violence against Ukrainian Canadians since Russia's invasion of Ukraine," the congress said in a statement.
In a statement Tuesday, the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association described the vandalism as a "hate-crime hoax" that stoked social discord and fear among Canadian Ukrainians.
"We believe all Canadians have the right to enjoy their property without being subjected to intimidation or threats," the statement said.
25 Oct 22
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As part of my little Scooby Doo! AU, I decided to do some character sheets, so here we have of our favorite waiter and theorist, Ness! He's the Velma equivalent in this AU, and while a bit insufferable at times, he means well, and he is a very attentive friend!
He's definitely not a teenager here lol (I didn't really get a few of the decisions made on the novel but never mind that book)
He's a big Earthbound/Mother fan.
He did name himself Ness after all (he's a trans guy btw)
He absolutely hates scientific misinformation, and he will bombard you with the correct information from any given subject he knows to make sure you're not misinformed (he has caused a few fights because of this)
His ‘Supernatural theory’ blog actually revolves around disproving hoaxes and coming up with logical answers to what many may see as outer worldly.
He has a roommate who goes by Cinder, and they also help Ness with his blog and investigations.
Vanessa is the reason why he hasn't been arrested for trespassing at Freddy’s. Did he learn from his mistake? Kinda, he did learn how to better evade the security guards and the cameras.
The Missing Children Incident was like, his true crime awakening. He's obsessed with it and his second blog is almost entirely dedicated to it.
He owns a few Fazbear merch. Some he has had since childhood (a shirt with a golden version of Freddy he occasionally uses as a pijama and always while FazTheorizing), others he has acquired more recently (his cupcake pen)
He finds Mike to be cute (his failed swagger and soggy cat appearance charmed him), but he's too preoccupied with his real job to even think about asking him out or something like that. Mike just finds him too talkative, but at least he gives him free fries for Abby.
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#fnaf au#artists on tumblr#writers on tumblr#fnaf movie#ness the waiter#fnaf#procreate#scooby doo#but hey#thats just a theory#mike schmidt#vanessa shelly#abby schmidt#max aka the girl who was gone too soon#velma dinkley#securitywaiter#scooby gang#my art#character sheet#ness fnaf#william afton#vanessa afton#comic#autistic headcanon#they are all autistic#trans headcanon
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